Italian photography holiday

Learning to photograph in Italy

Our Italian photography workshop holidays are tuned to developing your creative eye. Discover how to make the ordinary extraordinary and occasionally even the ugly, beautiful. Develop an understanding of light, when to use hard light and when soft light. As well as using natural or artificial light, explore how to find dramatic light, even on a dull day. Once you are developing a feel for the aesthetics, you will be guided towards taking full control of your camera. “I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand”, underpins our teaching ethos. You may wish to work with your ‘Smart Phone’ which is fine since the essence of what we teach is the aesthetics of composition and ‘seeing’ shots. However each photographer would benefit more by having a camera as well as a laptop or tablet, with ‘Lightroom’ installed. ‘Lightroom’ is available through ‘Adobe‘, who created the absolutely indispensable ‘Lightroom’ for photographers, with a seven day free trial. The beginner/intermediate Italian photography workshop will include photographic tuition and tips for everybody wanting to improve their photography knowledge.

Italian photography workshop hotel

We’ll be staying at a small yet comfortable agriturismo country house hotel. The bedrooms are all en-suite, simple in style and without frills. We’ve eaten at Sara’s hotel often and is one of our favourites, with much cooked from their own grown produce. Our price for the seven night Italian photography workshop holiday, with tuition, is £2,560 for couples. Single bookings are available for £1,360 and this is inclusive of breakfast and dinner. Flight and transfers are not included, as the logistics are rather variable, however Naples Airport is under 50 miles away. As the Agriturismo Hotel is off the tourist ‘beaten track’, it is recommended you have your own vehicle or car-hire. Our hotel has bikes to hire so afternoon exploring can be simple and down to earth, if you prefer. Our next Italian photography holiday course is from 8th-15th June ’24 and the following is from 14th September ’24 for 7 nights. There may be many questions you may wish to ask, so please do call or write to us and we will be pleased to assist.

Why we are well qualified to lead

Since I originated these courses in 2017, they have grown to the extent that I now have a small team. Our team now includes experienced portrait photographer and digital artist Andrew Florides and super hostess Leonie Charles, ensuring that you are learning within a small group. I Personally feel fortunate in having gained exemplary teaching experiences, and have used these to structure our ‘Italian photography holiday’ courses. As a ‘creative’, I have regularly lectured at Central Saint Martins School of Art (London), London College of Communication and Norwich School of Art. This, together with having worked with some of the UK’s most iconic organisations, has helped build and define my career. Amongst many influential clients, I have been commissioned by the BBC, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Design Council, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A Museum. My work has been shown in international graphic publications: ‘Graphis’, the ‘Designers & Art Directors’ annual and ‘Modern Publicity’.

Andrew has an equally impressive background with portraiture that has included sessions for Sir Anthony Hopkins, Todd Hunter and Henry Blofield. His commercial clients have included British Airways, Microsoft, Qatar Airways, Earle interiors and Knowles and Christou. Most famously he was the first commercial photographer to be invited to photograph Kensington Palace interiors.

And of course our ‘Student comments’ page will give a good idea of how students have both learnt, as well enjoyed, our photography sessions together.

Italian photography workshop schedule

A typical day will start with an ‘on-location’ sunrise shoot and return for breakfast at around 8am. The evening pre-dinner session, from around 6pm till 7pm, will be for feedback on the morning’s shoot. Here you will learn how to refine your images through ‘post production’ techniques. We will also cover the filing of shots, the organising of galleries and sharing. Photographic basics such as subject finding and composition, will become thoroughly familiar to you. The exposure triangle between speed, aperture and sensor settings as well as lens selection, will follow naturally during the course. These are the subjects that we will ‘demystify’, as we encourage you into taking fuller control of your camera. And you should find ample time between the two sessions, to explore, sightsee or just enjoy a siesta. We will be on hand throughout your Italian photography workshop holiday, should you want more intensive tuition. Please contact us if you wish to discuss any points in further detail. Grazie Rolando